Csizi96

And finishing with some overall rankings, what power ranking are about. I did two different type of rankings. One based on Paul's rankings, who I got the whole idea from: (Sum of top 4 centers + sum of top 8 forwards + sum of top 6 defensemen + sum of top 2 goalies)/20 The other is based on the positional rankings. I gave 1 point for the best team in every position, 2 for the second best, etc. then summed those. Luckily there are no changes in the top 6, but later there are some, it looks quite interesting. Of course Canada is #1 in the power ranking, USA's consistency among positions earn them the #2 place, and Russia is #3. Interesting to see how high can go Norway with their goalies in the position based ranking, tied with Latvia from the 16th. position in the other.

And here it is the positional rankings. It was a long way to get here, but it feels amazing to look at the table As it was predictable, Canada tops all rankings, second is USA almost everywhere, only the Russian goalie duo could leave their mark in the list, but their D-squad is only 7th on the list.. crazy. Behind the top 3 there is a tight race between Sweden, Finland and Czech Republic, so the top 6 really looks like top 6 here. Alsp at the bottom of the list: Italy, Belarus, Slovenia look like they are cemented there, and Norway is not far ahead of them. However the amazing Belarussian forwards or the heroic Norwegian goalies could pull one of them out of that lower table. Some fun facts: Both Denmarks's centers (3rd place..) and goalies broke into the top 6, so they could do well, if their #13 defense is not letting them down in key situations. Also Switzerland has the 4th best D-squad, but who knows, maybe the mid-low centers and goalies could limit their potential.

Before the power rankings some average stats for age, height and weight of the squads. Looks like the neighbor countries share the philosophies (Slovakia-Czech Rep. and Austria-Germany) The latter 2 can cause some upsets with their young squad and surely physical play given their size advantage. Czechs and slovaks look like an experienced squad but they may need some refreshing in a few years. Finland and Canada looks like skill based on their lack of size. But without looking at ratings, this is rather some fun fact than a base of any analysis

After going through the GHL rosters, I refreshed the squads with the missing people. Some of the biggest names, and some fun fact: Both USA and Czech Republic have a new starting goalie: Austin Matthew and head coach could persuade legendary Zikmund Bowman for one more world championships!. Germany have 2 new goalies as well, and a first line defender Marcus Kaya. Canada finally had to cut Zion Senior to be able to add Bandits' Michael Rogers..Russia got two new centers: Tselner and Pribylov. Finland also added a star forward Janhunen from Notthingham. Sweden found a pair of top forwards in Wiktor Fogelberg and Jesper Berch, plus leading D-man Jerry Drougge. Czechia has a new first line D-man too, Pauliak from the Fighters, and added top talent Novysedlák to the squad. USA: I talked about their new goalie, but they have no less than 3 changes in their D-squad: Letson, Lucia and Edson are the new faces. Belarus added defender Nikita Drozd (they have the exactly same named guy in the forwards.. awesome), and forward Stankiewicz, plus a few depth guys. Ukraine have 3 additions as well: Andrusiak and Yiranek to the offensive power and talented Minyaylyuk in goal.

I guess it's just minor bug, that a few players is hidden in the all players tab. I don't think it's an issue, because we use that tab rarely, and it's really just a few players. But the coaching staff decided to include Matei in the squad, because of that last minute change, Tino Willis got cut. To be honest, ratings wise I should have cut Zion Senior, but he is a living legend, while Tino is nervous and lazy. I hope you agree with going against my own rules on this I also updated the roster picture with him

And here comes the World #1 at the moment, Team Canada! As you would think, pretty of skill in this roster.. not a single player under 90 overall..crazy! They have the highest rated goalie, the veteran Tobias Torres and the best forward, Warman Fighters' Pattenaude who is still only 23 years old..I don't want to spend a lot of times on them ratingswise, as you can see, based on that they are far the best team, with a huge depth. Of course not too many young talents, but it can be extremely hard to get into this team, Camil McAulay is 21 years old, we should have a look at his performance in the next years, Looking at their personalities ego won't be a problem here and their leadership is very good (Potts is the western definition of captain instead of Siyankov.. ) But plenty of the team is lazy or half hearted, and they have a lot of nervous players as well. Plus all three goalis have anxiety, that can make the playoffs tricky for them. Still the lowest odds for them to win the worlds. Tomorrow I will share some positional power rankings about these teams, and some squad statistics

In second place it's the Красная машина (Red Machine) Their goalie tandem looks top, I'm sure there will be a huge competition for the starter position. Their defense has a world class duo, Nizamutdinov's future looks very bright, but behind them there is a gap, and also competition to get into the playing squad. In the attackers they have 4 90-ish forwards for the top 6, and behind them the definition of the captain, Sergey Parshivlyuk. Their centers look like they are not that elite, but they are in very good age, maybe there's something more in them in the coming years. By their personalities, they are not really egoistic, team comes first, they love playing hockey, and can motivate themselves for the biggest games as well. Very interesting squad for sure, surely a real contender.

And here comes the top 3 teams of real life hockey at the moment: #3 is Suomi At first sight you can see they have small problems in goal, they don't have a star player in this position, but Kanerva can be a good player in the future, and maybe Huhtala as well. Their D core looks very good, 4 90-ish players. In the attackers, Janhunen and Kukkonen are over 90, but the others look strong in depth. Youngster Kaila is made as captain in his first season, but the others..so many anonymus guys on the roster..and the other 2 true leaders are nervous.. this looks like a big issue, it would be a good challenge for the two young leaders to get them together for a very good finish.

The fourth team in the world rankings is Tre Kronor. They are very friendly off the ice, but look how many nervous guys and heroes, no middle class here, quite strange. Their D-squad is based on experience, and the attackers are mostly young guns with lots of talents: 10 of 14 are under 25, and Granath at the age of 19 already captain with very good traits. The goalies are a bit strange, ratingswise pretty good, but personalities.. meh. Esaias Ek would be a top talent with better traits for sure. In general looking at the ratings they are close to the Czech guys, a few elite defenders, and a lots of depth otherwise.

In 5th place here comes the Czech Republic. In goal they have a true legend, Zikmund Bowman who has a ton of experience, and is still in very good form. The first 4 defensemen look very good as well, looking at the forwards, or the other defensemen they don't have real elite players, but you can never now who will step up in certain games from this balanced squad. They are pretty tough with quite good leadership abilities and ambition, although their top line forwards could do better in big games. I guess their depth makes them a real threat especially when paired with good goalie performance.

#6 is Team USA As most of you would think they should be higher in GPHM rankings than in real life.. yes, you are right. They have a pretty epic team! The best players could be (only rating wise, I don't know the GHL players that well..(yet? )) Coronado, Jolly and the captain Spiers. They have a few old people in the lineup, so experience may be a factor (just look at the goalie trio) But there are a few prospects who already made the squad (like Asay or Ham ) Their problem can be however the lack of true leaders, the nervous guys when they come close to win something, and also lack of ambition. The defensive squad is pretty tough also, so penalty killing could also be crucial for them. At first sight, they could be a strong candidate to play in the finals.

The next squad is Träger der Adler (Bearers of the Eagle) They have a few elite players at first look: the young star center Dieter Hauk, forward Gerber who is playing for Hamilton, and top D-line Rothe and Kaya. Another strength could be their good leadership and ego traits, that can help them in harder times. On the downside They are lacking in defense depth a bit, a BHL player made the squad, but he can improve a lot. The goalies look pretty good to be fair. They look really like a top-mid team, right where their rank is.

Getting to the top 8 of the world rankings, next up is La Nati or the Eisgenossen. By overall ratings they have the best player of the world, Defender Sven Keller, and his possible pairing, Hodel looks neat too..They have 4 defenders rated 90 or higher, for a 8th seed its very impressive! However they don't have this kind of depth at the other positions: only one 90 rated attacker looks a bit thin against better teams, but who knows how can the others contribute. Their best goalie is 85, which is also a so-so, but he is heroic, and also he is a rare sight, right handed (was his hero Jonas Hiller? ) I quickly checked, Denmark, and Slovenia have 2 right handed goalies in the squad, and the 3rd string Italian keeper is strange too. Their problem can be that they have quite a lot of Nervous Nellies. But they have quite good prospects, like Baumann and Zollinger And at the end some fun facts about them. Their captain, Wyss just got relegated from SHL, and he is assigned to the affiliate despite being 85 OVR.. and their backup keeper plays in the home league.

#9 in the rankings is a former world champion: Naši chlapci (Our boys) They have pretty tall players, but what is more important is that they are very experienced players all over the squad. However they have a top talent, Martin Oravec, who plays for the Frost Giants. Their first D-pair is absolutely elite, but as you can see, they have only 4 players playing center, so depth is missing there, and also leadership is something they are lacking in, even with their experience. However, they look serious about hockey, and their first line with Sille and Stuk can cause some problems for the opponents.

Next up is the best of the 3 baltic countries in terms of ice hockey: Latvia. They have a very talented, but lazy young goalie, Jauzems from the Warman Fighters. Their first D-pair is elite, and both playing for the Bandits, so chemistry has to be high too. In other aspects they are a very mixed team, maybe on the downside we can mention the lack of good centers, and big games issues, We will see in the power rankings how they do. Fun fact. They have 2 players from CHL, one from RUHL 2 and tons of powerforwards.

Well, I have No idea how did my scout miss a player of that calibre in a team of that calibre.. I will surely fire him, and include Morten in the squad for sure. Thanks, man! Just checked the all players, I swear, he is not there!

#11 is again a North European team: Isbjørnene (The Polar Bears). As you can see, their first line is very impressive: 85-90-84; 92-89;91. But after that there is a rather huge gap, and the rest of the team could have problems against most teams. Especially as 11 people from the squad of 25 is without club. Most guys look a bit cocky and they have problems in other personality aspects too, even their best players. They only have Daniel Jenssen and Tom Johansen as good prospects, but who knows, maybe some other future stars will pop up soon. Their top level goalie can help them a lot, but he is not a best in big games, and some can be said about his backup. So overall this is a very interesting squad I would say.

#12 on the rankings are the Danish Lions. Captained and led by an absolutely top tier center, Ulrik Kristensen. All of them come from GHL and SHL, only one assigned to affiliate. As from a north European team we expected, they are pretty big guys as well Their talent is amazing, just look at Dam, Lorentzen, Søndergaard, or their top defenseman Rasmussen. In goal they have a very experienced squad, but as their ability is close, they can make each other perform even better..(Honorable mention is North Shore's Argus Søndergaard, who is 40 years old, but since l did the squad, improved to 87 to be #3, and is the best goalie in the SHL with 50 games started! But as he is #1 in his club l think he might be retired from internationals.. ) On the downside is their big games traits, I guess they could do with more determined guys, but as #12 in real world, they look like a very decent squad.

Next in the world rankings is Зубры (Bisons). They have the 3 Maxims leading them: the center Navitski of South Pole, winger Sadowski of Mississauga, and defenseman Kavalchuk of the Tornadoes. Their starter goalie Kovalevich is young and decent, but... an injury to him can quite bury this team. They have an impressive first line, winger depth looks good too, and lots of experienced guys on the roster (with hungry youngsters waiting to take their places already). In the cons column next to the goalie "depth" there is the lack of quality d-men, and they look like struggling in ambition, and it seems they find it hard to motivate themselves for big games..(maybe because of the lack of ambition? )

Well, I started with random small teams, and when l started again, first went through the already done teams, then with the new ones l decided to go according to the IIHF world rankings. The last "original" small team is Les Bleus. They have a few elite players, like Rodolphe Jahic of the Bandits, or the young gun El Madkouri, who is trying to build himself up in the SHL. Their core looks quite fine, and on forwards side depth is good also. But their lack of leadership (2 of their designated leaders would barely make the line up, at least they are young) and anxiety of big games could cause them serious problems. Also they have a lot of playmakers, but no scorers..:D And at last... where the hell are the french goalies in the game? They should really look for a middle-high tier canadian guy with french name if they want to be competitive!

Next team is Risi (meanin Lynx). At first they look like a good middle tier team, who are very nice off the ice, but kinda tough to meet them at the game. It looks like they have 2 quite good lines, and then quality drops a bit, but for a small nation like them, I guess it's normal. Their top attackers are Jan Kosir (Golden Flyers) and Dominik Oresnik (Razorbacks) who can pull this team in their prime years. On the D side, by far the top pair is Davor Novak (Hawks) and Alexander Pirjevec (Outlaws), who are stilly very young, so the future looks bright. In goal 3 kinda similar players: Uros Horvat looks the best, and he is quite Heroic, but here form can be a big factor when picking the starter

Next up are the Eagles. If you look at them, their core team looks like a good, stable average one, with no real stars but reliable guys all around. The D has plenty of talent with the already grown youngsters. They have even younger forwards who are not elite level, but could be good depth players in the future (didn't look at ratings..:D ). Key players will be Sandro Koch from the Black Devils who looks very good at the age of 23, the same could be said about Foresters' D-man Angelo Braun, and Razorbacks experienced goalie Yannik Meyer. They look like a good mix in every aspects of personality traits also. (By the way, if anyone knows how to represent Belarus flag in excel, heeelp. that white-red stripe on the left is killing me, l tried, but looks lame.. )

So, continuing with S11 teams. I won't upload Italy again, as only a few changes: 2-3 old guys retired, but no young superstar or anything else came across. So let's go forward with Team Ukraine( Yellow and Blue). In real life they are the worst in the world rankings of the nationalities in the game. But they have 5 defenders playing in GHL, and their D line is in very good age. In offense they have the legendary Kyrylo Voloshin, 800+ GHL regular season and almost 100 playoff match, close to point/match in both categories. Then there's Pavlo Savaryn, who looks like gonna continue Kyrylo's fame, and his best years are still to come. Their offense is quite old tho, but they have good talents on the way. Their only problem could be the goalie depth, if Fedorenko is injured, they will be in massive trouble. But with this brutal firepower on their best day they can be a huge challenge for the big teams too.

Yes sure. I did 4 or 5 back then. If l find the files, and refresh, l can post them. Hopefully during the weekend l can do that

Buzzed by Paul's idea in Cage, I started to put together some small nations' national team squads. I did in 14 F, 8 D, 3 G format, tried to split the 14 into 5 C + 9 F, but where centers were clearly better than the last few forwards there I went with them. Just to be clear, I only looked at overall (what I try to avoid when building my team tho), so it's rather the best team than the right one Any questions, requests, advice and comments are welcome as well I also used a bit more colors in the player traits, according to the order of traits in the help files Let's start with the Gli Azzurri roster here too: Interesting to see they have a lot of free agents, almost no depth in wingers, and their best goalie is down in the Czech league. Ones to watch: Pablo Zambrotta, the 87 ovr center and Samuele Perico, the 84 ovr defender, both with plenty of GHL experience, and Cristian Diego Alves, the recent BHL draftee who can grow into an important player for this team. As you can see, their D-line is getting old, but they try to compensate it with size and toughness